


Find Your Way By Moonlight

by Kaerran



Category: Final Fantasy IX
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-06 20:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14655471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaerran/pseuds/Kaerran
Summary: Isn't it nice when things just work?Or, what happens when a kidnapping goes right.





	Find Your Way By Moonlight

"I shall hereby do my best to kidnap you!" Zidane announces, already making a plan.

Cinna burst in, startling the princess. "What're you two doin'? Come on, this way!"

"Don't worry, Princess. It's my friend Cinna!" Zidane says. Before she can say anything more, he turns to Cinna. "Okay, I have a plan. Princess, give me your robe. I'll lead them off!"

The princess stammers something, then pulls off the white robe. 

Zidane tosses it straight on and starts stuffing his tail out of sight. "Now, you can trust Cinna, okay? He'll find you a place to hide." 

The two of them vanish into the meeting room, and Zidane crouches beside the other door. When the hallway door opens, he bolts through the other, to the frustrated yell of a "Princess!" from the storage room. 

Ruby's still there, and she gives Zidane a weird look before he can talk. "No time, hide in instrument storage!" he says, and heads for the orchestra pit again.

The knight's clanking-punctuated jog floats up behind him, and the orchestra members give him dirty looks. He ignores them and races around the curve. Of course, there's nowhere to go that way, unless you're a very creative member of Tantalus who knows the Prima Vista like the back of your hand. He climbs onto the outside of the box and onto the awning he and the princess fell through so recently. Climbing much more carefully, he manages to make his way to the lit up arch and shimmy along it to the ornamental pillar tops.

A frustrated yell comes from below him. "Princess! I order you to come back down!"

Zidane grins to himself and continues shimmying until he's out of sight, then waits. The knight finally clanks away, and when Zidane peeks out, he's disappeared again. Zidane retraces his steps and plops back into the orchestra pit. "He left?" he asks as he pulls off the robe.

The conductor snorts. "Good riddance to him, interrupting the play like that."

Zidane grins at the band leader and wads up the robe. He heads inside, chucking the robe into instrument storage as he passes. Ruby's already gone, probably for her big entrance. He eventually finds Blank and Cinna, Blank shedding the armor (and oglops).

"How is she?" Zidane asks Cinna.

"Good! Thanks for drawing off that guy," Cinna says. "I found her a place to hide in the engine room."

Blank shakes out his hair from the overly small helmet. "I'll go keep an eye on the princess. That knight will probably keep looking for her, and you guys are needed on stage."

Zidane and Cinna nod and head off to finish the play.

The rest of the play goes off without a hitch--well, any that might affect their actual plan. Baku has to kick some Alexandrian guard off stage and away from harassing some poor kid. Beyond that, nothing happens. No one notices them expertly avoid several scenes and adlib some lame explanations into place to cover for them. As they take their final bows, Zidane spies a dejected knight walk through the audience. 

As they head off stage, Blank runs up. "I got rid of that knight," he says, a bit breathlessly. "Told him he wasn't allowed backstage. He complained about the princess, I told him I'd looked everywhere for intruders and she wasn't on the Prima Vista."

"Good work," Baku says. "Minus the part where you didn't follow the plan."

Zidane and Blank wince. "Sorry boss," says Blank.

"We tried to dose her, but she was already on the run," Zidane says sheepishly. "I guess she wanted us to kidnap her?"

The rest of Tantalus stare at him.

"Well that's what she said. So I skipped the dosing her part, but she brought some knight guy with her so I had to lead him off."

Blank looks like he wants to punch Zidane, possibly because he thinks Zidane was just flirting again, but Baku looks thoughtful. "Well, it can't be helped now. Let's get out of here before they decide to search us again."

Cinna races off to the engine room for whatever engine stuff he did, and Benero and Zenero run off to do other lift off preparations. Baku heads for the cabin, and Zidane decides he might as well go check on the princess, so he follows Cinna.

Cinna is a whirlwind of preparation, but Zidane ignores him. "Princess? We're about to leave, how're you doing?"

She appears from behind some machinery, looking relieved. "You're back!" she calls.

Zidane grins at her and heads down to her level. When he sees Cinna shooting them minor death glares, he carefully takes her arm and starts to lead her away. "Yeah, I lost that rusty guy pretty easily, but I had to finish the play. Let's get out of here, it's too loud."

Neither of them speak again until they're a few hallways away.

"Thank you," the princess suddenly says. "For the..."

Zidane grins at her cheekily. "Kidnapping you? I never thought I'd hear that!"

The princess gives him a surprisingly effective glare. Below them, the ship creaks as it finally lifts off.

Zidane rubs the back of his head. "Relax, Princess, I was kidding. I, uh, don't know what you usually do, but it's not that far to Lindblum... Maybe I could take you to see the sights?"

"That might be nice..." the princess says, before Blank appears.

"Hey, the boss wants to talk to us." he says, before looking at the princess. "I don't know where you can stay."

The princess blushes a bit. "I don't know either... He suggested seeing the sights?"

"Don't mind Zidane, he's just flirting," Blank says as Zidane splutters. "I guess the orchestra pit has a good view." He then leads the princess in that direction. 

Zidane sighs and heads back up to the meeting room. Baku is already there, along with most of the others. Since Ruby apparently stole his chair, Zidane steals Blank's spot.

Baku drums his fingers on the table before starting. "Since the plan didn't go off as expected, we gotta make a few changes. The big one is no one tell the princess that we were aiming to kidnap her. We'll just deliver her and no one will be the wiser."

Marcus sits up. "What if she doesn't want to go to Lindblum?"

"Then we tell her that's the only place the Prima Vista's going," Baku says gruffly.

Zidane could almost admire the way they're dancing around the Cid thing if it wasn't immensely frustrating. He wasn't a kid anymore! He still knew better than to say that though.

They all start to get up, and then Baku is suddenly staring right at Zidane. "Also," he says, freezing everyone in place. "Zidane." Everyone else relaxes and starts shuffling out.

Zidane squirms under Baku's gaze.

"Don't get attached," Baku says, almost sounding gentle. "She's not going to be here long."

"I promised I'd kidnap her," Zidane says foolishly.

Baku cuffs him. After Zidane squawks, Baku sighs and mutters something to himself. When Zidane gives him a questioning look, Baku cuffs him again, softer this time. "You wouldn't listen to me anyway. Go. Entertain the princess. Keep her out of our hair." Baku marches off again, leaving Zidane rubbing his arm.

He heads back to where he left the princess, and passes Blank as he walks. Eventually he steps outside to see her leaning over the railing slightly, watching the moonlit countryside slide past below. He clears his throat and approaches, but she doesn't turn to look at him.

"You looking at anything in particular?" he says awkwardly.

She shakes her head. "I didn't get to watch the last time I went to Lindblum," she says softly.

"Ah..." He can't really think of anything else to add, so he leans on the railing beside her. Eventually he says, "The view is better during the day and with the pit raised, but we don't fly as well. And it's a safety hazard. Baku's big on safety."

She nods, not really paying attention to what he's saying.

"....can I get you anything?" he tries again.

This time she actually looks at him. "No, I think that's quite all right. You've done enough for me already."

He shrugs. "I didn't do much..."

She gives him a look that makes him want to squirm. "Do not tell me that your activities did not result in any problems with the others."

Zidane laughs weakly because boy, does she not have any idea. "It's nothing I can't handle."

She looks out over the landscape again. "Still, I will have to find some way to repay you."

"Naw, just being with you is a reward enough," Zidane says before he can think better of it.

The princess turns bright red.

"Uh, sorry," he says, digging a toe into the deck. "I keep forgetting you're... y'know, not a normal girl."

To Zidane's surprise, that calms her down. "I suppose you say that to every normal girl," she says quietly.

"Weeeell," Zidane draws out, but can't really hold it that long. "...not really. Girls don't really want to spend time with a guy like me."

"I can't understand why," the princess says distractedly. "You seem perfectly nice to me."

Zidane is glad that the countryside is too compelling for her to notice his suddenly red cheeks.

They eventually pull into Lindblum, Baku steering them directly into the Grand Castle docks. Zidane couldn't help but wonder if that was a giveaway, then realized that the princess probably wasn't aware other airship docks even existed. 

As they disembark, and the guards approach, the princess turns to Zidane and takes one of his hands. He immediately sinks to a knee, ignoring a snicker from one of the Neroes.

"You have done me a great service," the princess says. "I will find some way to repay you, I promise."

For a moment, Zidane can't think of anything to say. When he manages to find his voice, he says, "Well, if you ever need kidnapping again, you know who to call!"

They exchange smiles, and for a moment Zidane's entire world revolves around the princess... and then the guards arrive and the moment is gone.

Baku follows the princess off to see Cid, and the rest of Tantalus piles back onto the Prima Vista. Marcus claps Zidane on the shoulder as they head off to take the ship back to her usual hanger. 

"I thought Baku told you not to fall for her," Zenero says slyly.

Zidane winces. "What can I say, I fall for all the ladies," he jokes.

As Zenero walks off, Zidane adds wistfully, under his breath, "Besides... she's actually my age for once."

Marcus pats his shoulder reassuringly again as the Prima Vista begins to move again.

**Author's Note:**

> I called this a fluffy AU but it's really not since y'know. He doesn't get the girl. He does get a new bro though, since Tantalus totally adopts Vivi.
> 
> First part of the summary mostly taken from the [Honda Cog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cog_\(advertisement\)) commercial even though there's no relation whatsoever. Title is from a quote from Oscar Wilde; "Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."


End file.
